Growls Garden - EP

About Clark

Mixing computer-generated crunches, pops, and clicks with organic synthesizer tones and heavily processed sounds, U.K. native Chris Clark creates tense electronica that struggles between a sense of natural wonder and exuberance and dark, foreboding under currents. Clark, who lived in Bristol and Brighton before settling in Birmingham, debuted on Warp with the wintry Clarence Park, released in 2001. Recorded while he was still at university, it was a promising first record, full of cold, terse synths and big beats. The Ceramics Is the Bomb EP followed in 2003, but it was on Empty the Bones of You where Clark proved to be one of the most original laptop musicians working. With fully tweaked sounds and disorienting textures overlapping with lulling synths, Clark constructed a buzzing and organic world of sound. The albums Body Riddle and Turning Dragon, released in 2006 and 2008, as well as the 2009 set Totems Flare, traced the ever-growing maturity present in Clark's music.

For 2012's Iradelphic, he recorded in a number of locations and collaborated with like-minded labelmate Bibio. The time spent making the album was so fruitful, he released a downloadable online series called The Iradelphic Sessions as well as an EP, Fantasm Planes, that arrived later that year. Shortly after the EP's release, a dance performance called Tilted Fawn, featuring music by Clark, debuted at the Sydney Opera House. The remixes collection Feast/Beast, which featured collaborations with Massive Attack, Bibio, Depeche Mode, and HEALTH, arrived in 2013. Clark returned with new material in 2014, first with the single Superscope, and then with a self-titled album. These releases, along with 2015's Flame Rave EP, took a harder-edged, more danceable approach than the material that preceded them. Also in 2015, Clark composed the score to The Last Panthers, a six-part crime thriller mini-series produced by Warp Films that utilized David Bowie's "Blackstar" as its opening theme song. Warp released Clark's BAFTA-nominated score in March of 2016. For the following year's Death Peak, Clark incorporated vocals into vibrant-yet-ominous tracks with a maximalist approach. The album received positive reviews and was commended for the producer's decision to work outside his comfort zone, opting for invigorating melodies while retaining his dissonant, hard-hitting sound. ~ Charles Spano